New shortlist of six sites for travellers' stopover drawn up - but it's being kept secret

Travellers moved onto land off Cromwell Road and Cranwell Avenue in Grimsby earlier this month (Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)

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Grimsby could soon have its first designated stopping place for travellers.

North East Lincolnshire Council has drawn up a shortlist of six sites and cabinet members are due to select a preferred site next month.

At an economic scrutiny panel meeting at Grimsby Town Hall the details of the assessments of each site were revealed to members.

But after a narrow vote to exclude the public and press from the hearing, the sites on the shortlist have been kept secret.

However, it was revealed at the meeting all six are in council ownership and five had been on a previous shortlist of six sites examined by a working party last year.

ABP port security and officials, at the fenced off car park, wait for the travellers to move from in front of the Grimsby port offices last month (Image: Rick Byrne / Grimsbylive)

Committee members were warned not to discuss the sites outside of the meeting.

But Grimsby Live understands five of the sites had been assessed previously by a council working party in 2017.

It is believed they are the site of the former Nunsthorpe youth centre, land on Burwell Drive, and vacant land adjoining Winchester Avenue, Torksey Drive and Toynton Road.

Two others are Orwell Street and Cromwell Road open space. Cromwell Road has two council-owned plots, one between the medical centre and Grimsby Auditorium and land between the River Freshney and Ampleforth Avenue.

Councillors on the scrutiny panel, chaired by Councillor Lia Nici, (Scartho, Conservative), were recommended to make a decision on the preferred site from the shortlist.

They had just been presented with detailed assessments of each site at the meeting. But Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors objected to the lack of time to read the technical details for each site, debate each one and make a recommendation.

Human waste and fly-tipping was left behind when a group of travellers left Haverstoe Park last month (Image: Grimsby Live/ Jon Corken)

Councillor Nici recommended excluding the press and public from the meeting. Later members agreed to defer making a recommendation until a special meeting to be held on September 24.

The search for a designated site for gypsies and travellers has been going on since 2014 to end the blight on many community sites, parks, car parks and redundant spaces throughout North East Lincolnshire.

Travellers have also left rubbish around King George V playing fields and last month a group occupied Associated British Ports offices' car park before bailiffs were called in and security fencing erected around the whole site.

A total of 60 sites for a travellers' stopover were suggested by the public initially. After assessments of each to meet criteria, such as access and size in order to accommodate up to 30 caravans, a shortlist of six were examined in detail in 2017.

Other sites were also studied including former Western School site, a layby off Hewitt's Avenue and land at Habrough. But those were deemed unsuitable. Waltham airfield was also discounted because providing an access was too costly.

After the scrutiny hearing, oppostion leader, Councillor Matthew Patrick said: "I fundamentally oppose keeping the shortlist of sites secret. We are told there will be full consultation of the sites. We all have a duty of transparency and the scrutiny chairman did not try to do that. It was only when pressed by Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors that the decision was deferred.

Councillor Matthew Patrick, calling for greater transparency over the choice of travellers' site

"I strongly believe that the public has the right to know which sites are included and why others have been discounted. I disagree that there is a public interest in keeping the shortlist secret.

"I cannot disclose which sites are on the shortlist. However, the officers have said five of the sites were investigated in 2017. I cannot talk about which were discounted. But some were discounted for reasons of sensitivity or flood risk."

A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire Council said: “We are currently continuing our search for a viable stopover site. The process has involved working with local authorities and technical experts, and engaging with members of the traveller community.

“Details of any shortlisted sites will be revealed at an appropriate point in the future when open for public consultation.”

Businesses in the Orwell Street area were joined by Caxton's theatre organisers when there was an outcry over using the council-owned Orwell Street car park as a potential site. It was later removed from the North East Lincolnshire Council shortlist in 2017.

There was a further outcry when a site on Nunsthorpe was also recommended.

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